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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
of this world if thereby you may influence one soul to engage in the
service of Christ.
God bids you with one hand, faith, take hold of His mighty arm,
and with the other hand, love, reach perishing souls. Christ is the
way, the truth, and the life. Follow Him. Walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Walk even as He walked. This is the will of God,
even your sanctification. The work you have to perform is to do the
will of Him who sustains your life for His glory. If you labor for
yourselves, it can profit you nothing. To labor for others’ good, to
be less self-caring and more in earnest to devote all to God, will be
acceptable to Him and be returned by His rich grace.
God has not apportioned you your lot to merely watch over and
care for yourselves. You are required to minister to, and watch over,
others, and in this exercise you will manifest those evils in your
character which need correcting, and will strengthen those weak
points that need strengthening. This is the part of the work we have
to perform; not impatiently, fretfully, unwillingly, but cheerfully,
gladly, in order to reach Christian perfection. To remove from us
everything which is not exactly agreeable is not imitating Christ. You
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should be very jealous for the honor of God. How circumspectly
should you walk, where now your course is not as it should be.
If you could see the pure angels with their bright, searching eyes
intently fixed on you, watching to record how the Christian glorifies
his Master; or could you observe the exulting, sneering triumph of
the evil angels, as they trace out every crooked way, and then quote
Scripture which is violated, and compare the life with this Scripture
which you profess to follow but from which you swerve, you would
be astonished and alarmed for yourselves. It takes the entire man to
make a valiant Christian. Oh, what blind, shortsighted creatures we
are! How little do we discern sacred things, and how feebly do we
comprehend the riches of His grace!
One thing I wish to impress upon your minds. You have the
special mediums of Satan closely connected with you, and their
power and influence have a manifest effect upon you, because you
do not remain near enough to God to ensure the special aid of angels
that excel in strength. Your union is altogether too strong with your
Lord’s enemies, and you perceive not that you are in danger of
making shipwreck of your faith. If you encourage, in the least, the